INTRODUCTION TOSOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Presented by:Mary Anne A. Portuguez, MP, RPm

OBSERVE.THINK.CHALLENGE.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF

PSYCHOLOGY!

What is social Psychology?

• It is the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people.

• In lined with the four major goals of Psychology: Describe, explain, predict, control, and influence.

To be scientific

is to be reliable

and valid.

A good scientific explanation can connect many thousands of observations, converting long lists of unconnected “facts” into an interconnected, coherent and meaningful pattern.

Jules Henri

Poincaré

“Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones, but a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”

To be scientific means to rely on theories.

a set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses.

Difference between deductive and inductive method.

• Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection implied that animals could transmit unique characteristics (such as long necks on giraffes or flippers on seals) to their offspring.

• Copernicus’s radical theory that the planets revolved around the sun, not the earth, simplified and organized thousands of prior heavenly observations

Major Theoretical Perspectives

• Sociocultural perspective. The theoretical viewpoint that searches for the causes of social behavior in influences from larger social groups.

• Evolutionary perspective. A theoretical viewpoint that searches for the causes of social behavior in the physical and psychological dispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce.

• Social learning perspective. A theoretical viewpoint that focuses on past learning experiences as determinants of a person’s social behaviors.

• Phenomenological perspective. The view that social behavior is driven by a person’s subjective interpretations of events in the environment.

• Social cognitive perspective. A theoretical viewpoint that focuses on the mental processes involved in paying attention to, interpreting, judging, and remembering social experiences.

In short,what drives social behavior from these various perspectives?

Perspective What drives social behavior?

Sociocultural Forces in larger social groups.Evolutionary Inherited tendencies to respond

tothe social environment in ways thatwould have helped our ancestorssurvive and reproduce.

Social Learning Rewards and punishments. Observinghow other people are rewarded andpunished for their social behaviors.

Phenomenological

The person’s subjective interpretationof a social situation.

Social Cognitive What we pay attention to in a socialsituation, how we interpret it, andhow we connect the current situationto related experiences in memory.

THE NEXUSPEOPLE INTERACTWITH ONE ANOTHER TO ACHIEVE SOME GOAL OR SATISFY SOME INNER MOTIVATION.

Basic Principles of Social Behavior

1. Social behavior is goal oriented. People interact with one another to achieve some goal or satisfy some inner motivation.2. Social behavior represents a continual interaction between the person and the situation.

Social behavior is goal-oriented.

•Surface level•Broader level

Fundamental motives

• To establish social ties.• To understand ourselves

and others.• To gain and maintain

status.• To defend ourselves and

those we value.• To attract and retain mates.

A taste of an

experiment on

heterosexual

attractions.women and men differ in some fascinating ways

Let’s talk about a PERSON in the SITUATION

> A person has features or characteristics that individuals carry into social situations.

> It refers to environmental events or circumstances outside the person.

PERSON-SITUATION INTERACTION

1. Different situations activate different parts of the self.

2. Each situation has different facets, and the social motive active in that situation depends on which facet one is paying attention to.

3. Not everyone responds in the same way to the same situation.

4. People change their situations.5. People choose their situations.6. Situations change people.7. Situations choose people.

How Psychologists Study Social Behavior

• Descriptive methods involve attempts to measure or record behaviors, thoughts, or feelings in their natural state.

• Experimental methods attempt to manipulate social processes by varying some aspect of the situation.

Some important terms

• Naturalistic observation. Recording everyday behaviors as they unfold in their natural settings.

• Hypothesis. A researcher’s prediction about what he or she will find.

• Observer bias. Error introduced into measurement when an observer overemphasizes behaviors he or she expects to find and fails to notice behaviors he or she does not expect.

• Case study. An intensive examination of an individual or group.

Some important terms

• Generalizability. The extent to which the findings of a particular research study extend to other similar circumstances or cases.

• Archival method. Examination of systematic data originally collected for other purposes (such as marriage licenses or arrest records).

• Survey method. A technique in which the researcher asks people to report on their beliefs, feelings, or behaviors.

• Social desirability bias. The tendency for people to say what they believe is appropriate or acceptable.

Some important terms

• Representative sample. A group of respondents having characteristics that match those of the larger population the researcher wants to describe.

• Psychological tests. Instruments for assessing a person’s abilities, cognitions, motivations, or behaviors.

• Reliability. The consistency of the score yielded by a psychological test.

• Validity. The extent to which a test measures what it is designed to measure.

Correlation• Correlation. The extent to which two

or more variables are associated with one another.

• Correlation coefficient A mathematical expression of the relationship between two variables.

Experiment

• Experiment. A research method in which the researcher sets out to systematically manipulate one source of influence while holding others constant.

• Independent variable. The variable manipulated by the experimenter.

• Dependent variable. The variable measured by the experimenter.

• Random assignment. The practice of assigning subjects to treatments so each subject has an equal chance of being in any condition.

Other terms

• Internal validity. The extent to which an experiment allows confident statements about cause and effect.

• Confound. A variable that systematically changes along with the independent variable, potentially leading to a mistaken conclusion about the effect of the independent variable.

• External validity. The extent to which the results of an experiment can be generalized to other circumstances.

• Demand characteristics. Cues that make subjects aware of how the experimenter expects them to behave.

Ethical safeguards in social psychological research

• Obtaining informed consent from research participants.

• Fully debriefing subjects after the research is completed.

• Evaluating the costs and benefits of the research procedures.

Social Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Developmental psychology consider how lifetime experiences combine with predispositions and early biological influences to produce the adult’s feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

• Personality psychology addresses differences between people and how individual psychological components add up to a whole person.

• Environmental psychology is the study of people’s interactions with the physical and social environment.

• Clinical psychology is the study of behavioral dysfunction and treatment.

• Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes.

• physiological psychology is studying the relation of biochemistry and neural structures to behavior.

WE ARE NOT BOXED TO ONLY ADJUST OURSELVES TO THE SITUATIONS. SOMETIMES, WE TRY TOCHANGE IT OURSELVES

BY ACTIVELY FIGHTING FOR IT. WE ARE NOT SHEEP AND WE ARE NOT SAINTS.

WE ARE HUMANS.

WE NEED TO FIGHT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT!

Portuguez, 2016